


Calculated Risk

by Vector



Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: Community: het_challenge, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-17
Updated: 2007-08-17
Packaged: 2017-10-02 18:28:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vector/pseuds/Vector
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few years postgame. For prompt: <i>A case of lust overcoming better judgment.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Calculated Risk

Larsa had known something like this would happen eventually, he supposed. Even if he hadn't, the solemn disapproval of Basch's presence as he dressed for one of these excursions would have been a hint. Not to mention Basch's more vocal objections before he had resigned himself to silent reproach. There were risks, certainly, but they were calculated, and he thought walking the streets of his own city to be worth the trade.

He wasn't so stupid as to go around Central unaccompanied, of course. He knew he still had enemies, those who didn't like what the Empire had become under his supervision these past years. Ironically, Latse was much safer for him, despite it's position on the outskirts of the city and it's somewhat unsavory reputation. It wasn't the low city, though certainly its inhabitants were humble—chiefly itinerant craftsmen and merchants, and a steady flow of non-Archadian traffic passing through for one reason or another.

Vitally, that meant is that there were be very few people who would recognize their emperor. Even if they knew his face in theory, who would look long enough at a youth in scruffy clothes for such a thing to occur to him? Basch himself had walked around with the face of a wanted criminal for months; he should know how unlikely it was that someone would both be acquainted with his face and be focused enough to see through their own expectations. Even if he was recognized, it was even more unlikely that it would trigger any permanent harm to his person or reputation. He could defend himself, and he was only wandering the city, after all.

At least Basch had acknowledged that he would only be more conspicuous with a guard.

And so he had been wandering the merchant stalls alone, with no one giving him a second glance. He had paused at one shop, examining some jewelry hanging at eye level. Cheap worked silver and Dalmascan glass beads, it appeared. The necklaces sparkled in the light, but they weren't worth a tenth what the man was asking. He wished he had the confidence to believe the markup was because of the fairer trade deals he had been negotiating lately rather than simple greed.

A voice, half leer and half warning, cracked and then rose. "Looking for something for your girl?" Larsa jumped as he realized he'd caught the shopkeep's eye.

"Ah, no," he said, then broke off before he could say more, remembering that his diction came out too High Archadian when he spoke automatically. He tried to think how to phrase his escape.

He was distracted momentarily by his senses jumping. There were footsteps, moving confidently, right toward him. He turned—

"Fancy meeting you here." Penelo said with a quick grin, and Larsa remembered abruptly that Latse was also known for the patronage of sky pirates.

Larsa's heart jumped briefly with panic, but he didn't let it reach his face. With his next breath he calmed down. Penelo was clever, and he was obviously meant to be camouflaged. She wouldn't do anything to reveal him.

He smiled back. "Penelo. It has been too long."

Behind him, the jewelry merchant cackled. "Ah, I see. She's got more than her share of shiny things already, she has!"

Larsa frowned, but Penelo just laughed. "Come on." She grabbed his wrist and pulled him away in a jingle of bangles around her arms and trinkets dangling from her braid.

He found himself distracted by the bare curve of her hip as she led him; her outfit was more appropriate to Rabanastre than Archades in the fall, but Larsa supposed here among the sweltering press of people it was adequate.

They turned a corner.

"Penelo, where are we—"

"We're almost there," she interrupted, dropping his hand and looking around before ducking away to the side though a gap he hadn't noticed among the colorful banners and wares. Larsa blinked briefly before doing the same, waiting to make sure no one was warching at him before he followed Penelo.

The alley was no wider than the breadth of four men's shoulders, but it was long and narrow, the rough stone walls looming, the far end obstructed. Much above them, he could see a bridge from another level of the city. He often wondered, sometimes, what bizarre combinations of architects had come together to design bits of Archades.

Penelo was laughing again. "What are you _doing_ here, Larsa? Don't you have an Empire to be running?"

He flinched. "Are you quite sure this—"

"It's safe." Penelo said, immediately serious. "If anyone could overhear talking down here I would have gotten in trouble a long time ago. The most we have to worry about is someone else trying to come down here to make some covert deal. And we were here first." She smirked. "C'mon." She walked the rest of the way down the alley, and Larsa followed.

She leaned comfortably against a wall, and then blinked in surprise when Larsa settled opposite her. He realized what she must be noticing just as she spoke.

"You've grown." She shook her head. "That sounds silly. But you're taller than me, now." She looked at him appraisingly. "Anyway, you haven't answered my question! What's our young emperor doing in a place like this?"

"Apparently I am making covert deals with an attractive sky pirate. Or perhaps this is all a prelude to an abduction." He smiled lightly. "At least that would be more interesting. I've no grand plans for this outing. Just seeing the city, I suppose."

"Is that so." Amusement danced on Penelo's face. "Dressed like some merchant's son."

"I can hardly go out otherwise. And I cannot rule without knowing what it is I am ruling." He shrugged. "How have you been, Penelo? You haven't written in a while. No doubt your adventures have been much more exciting."

"I'm not about to land in one of your dungeons any time soon, if that's what you're worried about. Why, my business in Archades is entirely legal," she said, with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Good to hear it," said Larsa, graciously not inquiring further.

For a moment they just smiled at each other.

Penelo shifted slightly. "You know, I really do have a slightly stricter sense of ethics than most sky pirates. I've discovered." she said, her voice sounding surprisingly tentative for a moment.

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Abruptly, the glint was was back in her eyes. "Do you like me, Larsa?"

"Without a doubt," Larsa said immediately, and a sly grin landed on Penelo's face.

"Good." And she crossed the few feet of space in between them in a second, reached behind his neck and pulled his lips down to hers. Before he could even react to that, her hands were moving down, around his waist, fingers knitting at the small of his back, pulling his body towards hers easily—Larsa was still slender, and he could feel the muscles in her arms.

His body flushed with heat, bright and immediate. His hands went to her waist without any thought, his hands running across the bare skin he'd been detachedly wanting to touch since he'd seen her. She shivered and pushed closer, coaxing his mouth open with her tongue.

A brush at the roof of his mouth made a bolt shoot down his spine and settle like kindling fire at the base. He moaned into the kiss.

Then some glint of sanity made itself known in his fogged brain. Perhaps the risks of being here were safe enough when he was innocently wandering, but if someone found their Emperor in a dark Latse alley with a Dalmascan sky pirate—

The consequences of that were too much, no matter how unlikely. Panic made itself known again, and he froze in Penelo's embrace.

She broke the kiss but didn't move away. "Larsa," she said, and her voice was low and rough and it immediately reignited his lust.

"Penelo, I cannot. If we were to be seen—" He tried to rescue the willpower to move, to leave—

"No one's going to find us. It's safe for now," Penelo said, but there was a twinge in her voice. She knew he was right.

She licked a bead of sweat off his neck. He shuddered. He realized his hands were still on her skin, and it burned hot underneath his palms.

"We can steal a minute." Her breath quaked in his ear as she spoke, and then she bit down on his earlobe and stuck a hand down the front of his pants. They were fastened too tight for much to be done, but her fingers slid down sensitive skin, fingernails scratching, and he let out an inarticulate, embarrassingly high sound as he realized his own hands had slid upwards, over her ribcage and under the edge of her top—

"Oi! You kids get out of there!"

It was as if they'd both been hit with Stop, the way their motions halted simultaneously.

Then Penelo moved, and stomped a few steps up the alley. "Hey, Juke, why don't _you_ get out of here?" Her voice was a strange tangled mix of frustration and fury.

"Er," was faintly audible from the mouth of the alley, and Larsa could see a silhouette of one man turn to another. "Penelo. A'right then, we'll head elsewhere, shall we?" They both turned and left.

Larsa and Penelo stood in silence for a few seconds. "Jukael's contracted with me a few times," she offered eventually, weakly. "He wouldn't have recognized you even if it was light enough to see. I'm not sure he even knows there is an Emperor."

"I'll take your word for it," Larsa said, breathing slowly. His body still raced with arousal and adrenaline. "Nevertheless, I should likely get back."

"Probably," Penelo said miserably. She straightened out her clothes. "I'll go out first. If I don't come back in a few minutes, it should be clear for you to leave."

Larsa nodded. Penelo looked like she was trying to say something else, but eventually she turned away.

After a few steps she tossed back a faint smile. "I'll write."


End file.
